Most people remember him for the Top 40 hit he had with the movie Chariots of Fire, an uninteresting movie about a couple Brits running in the Olympics circa the 1920s. You could call it the Downton Abbey of track and field!
For nerds, Vangelis composed the soundtrack to Blade Runner! It may not have been the hit Chariots was yet I haven’t heard anyone mention the latter movie in decades while Blade has multiple cuts and releases! His music made the greatest background to Rutger Hauer’s famous speech from Roy Batty slowly dying near the film’s ending.
Thanks for everything Vangelis! I will need to get off my ass and find out what else you composed/performed being a contemporary of Wendy Carlos.